Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

It's true
I totally agree with the previous reviewer that this is the best intro to kant. The cartoon books and Kant's actual writings are too complicated but this is by far the easiest understand. The author is a famous existentialist philosopher too- so it's like you're killing two philosophers with one stone.

The Best Introduction to the Philosophy of Kant
The one philosopher who discourages more students of philosophy is Immanuel Kant, the hands-down winner. Yet, it is not his ideas that are difficult to understand, but, rather, getting to his ideas, which are cocooned in a maze of needlessly bad technical writing.

Thus, most would-be students of Kant seek a basic introduction to his thought, only to find that the vast majority of these are even denser than that which they seek to explain. Who wants to shell out $19.95 for an introduction to Kant that itself needs an introduction?

Well, you can relax, because there is a highly readable introduction to the great man's philosophy that sells for less than ten dollars. Written by the great 20th Century existential philosopher Karl Jaspers as part of his "Great Philosophers" series, it stands out as an easy to read, easy to understand introduction to one of the giants of philosophy. Armed in such a manner, Kant's actual writings will become less formidible, more appealing to both eye and mind.

Do not waste your time reading an academic's explanation of Kant. Read a major philosopher's introduction instead, for it not only takes a great mind to understand a great mind, but also to make the thought of that great mind accessible to all. ... Read more

Product Description
In this infectiously exciting book, Bryan Magee tells the story of his own discovery of philosophy and not only makes it come alive but shows its relevance to daily life. Magee is the Carl Sagan of philosophy, the great popularizer of the subject, and author of a major new introductory history, The Story of Philosophy. Confessions follows the course of Magee's life, exploring philosophers and ideas as he himself encountered them, introducing all the great figures and their ideas, from the pre-Socratics to Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper, including Wittgenstein, Kant, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer, rationalism, utilitarianism, empiricism, and existentialism. Amazon.com Review
Confessions is a somewhat misleading term in thiscontext: you won't find any lurid tales between these covers. BryanMagee's memoirs-cum-histories of philosophy aren't even"confessions" in the self-flagellating tradition ofSt. Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

So what is Confessions of a Philosopher, then? It's afascinating excursion through 2,000 years of wondering about the basicnature of existence and reality. As a 20th-century philosopher, Mageehas a lot to say about his peers, and he spares no feelings. The"Oxford philosophers," who decided that philosophy was notabout the nature of existence but about the nature of language,yet refused to give any consideration to fiction, are particulartargets of Magee's intellectual scorn, while the late Karl Popper, apersonal acquaintance of the author, is celebrated as a man whopersevered in philosophy's true duties in the face of widespreadacademic frippery.

If you've ever wondered why we exist, you have what it takes to be aphilosopher ... or at least to understand one. Bryan Magee'sConfessions are thoroughly engaging proof that you don't need adegree to be a deep thinker. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

mad about the games of scholars
It has been a few years since I started reading this book and acquired more knowledge along the lines of thinking expressed in this book. I planned to read the entire index before writing my review, but my attempts to discover the age of Bryan Magee were most successful when he revealed that he was 28 when he heard Karl Popper give an address to the Aristotelian Society in London on 13 October 1958. I recently bought a selection of Popper's work, Conjectures and Refutations, which contains that address: Back To The Pre-Socratics. I am not surprised that Magee experienced the discussion following Popper's paper "with disbelief and dismay." Scholars individually display bits of knowledge about what they have studied. In history, frequently the features of some society that coincide with a student's own experiences matter much more than institutional norms. As Magee explains wisdom:

Before them, he says, all societies regarded knowledge as something to be handed down inviolate and uncontaminated from each generation to the next. For this purpose institutions came into being--mysteries, churches, and at a more advanced stage schools. Great teachers and their writings were treated as authorities that it was impossible to dispute: indeed, merely to show that something had been said by them was to prove its truth. Dissent, in primitive societies, was normally punishable by death. The upshot of this was that a society's core body of knowledge and doctrine tended to remain static, especially if inscribed in writings that were regarded as holy. It was against this historical background that the pre-Socratic philosophers of ancient Greece introduced something wholly new and revolutionary: They institutionalized criticism.

Such a view of philosophy as a kind of confusion generated when logic reaches around and bites its own tail is widely assumed as the background for the games scholars engage in, Magee became angry at the scholars continuing to play their games without grappling with the basic insight. So Magee wrote a letter to Popper, which even criticized the way Popper "had written The Open Society, with similar consequences. Instead of presenting the most important arguments directly, he had put them forward in the context of discussing other people's ideas, chiefly Plato's and Marx's, with the result that most academics seemed to come away from the book thinking it was about Plato and Marx."

Scholarship is very much like the way news is reported as if it is about other people's money being squandered in endless displays of foolish sacrifice for the sake of a future that will change radically when we run out of electricity and the lights go out.

Philosophy in a nutshell?
Well, not really.It's more than that.
It's the living, breathing autobiography
of Magee who's fascination of Schopenhauer
has led me onto an amazing intellectual
journey.

The passage that will be forever ingrained
in my mind, as well as the minds of all
my kids, is the following:

"The greatest gift a formal education can
bestow is to develop in us a conception of
the world that is not merely an enlargement
of our own views and attitudes and interests
and assumptions; and in the nature of the
case we are not able to do this without help
from others who are free of our limitations.
But from this, alas, it follows that the
self-educated can never be more than
half-educated, a regrettable but inescapable
fact."

If you want to learn philosophy from the view
of a professional philsopher/educator,
definitely read this book.It's filled with
intellectual fodder and pretentious blather.

Cheers,
Arthur

Our best living philosophical writer
This will be short.Brian Magee is without doubt our best living philosophical writer.There are some other great ones.But trust me - get Mr. Magee's books and read them closely.Then re-read them.Then re-read them again.I don't know anyone in any field who is more important and less heralded.But don't worry.His reputation will grow.

Enjoyable Philosphical Reading
Confessions of a Philosopher is more of an introduction to philosophy than an autobiography. I thought that the book was very clearly written and presented what often comes across as dry subject matter in a way that made it interesting and enjoyable to read. Magee covers most of the great Western philosophers (as the cover says, "from Plato to Popper") but pays particular attention to Kant, Schopenhauer, Popper and those philosophers who inspired the twentieth-century focus on analytic philosophy (notably Wittgenstein and Russell). Magee appears to feel strongly that the logical positivists and later analytic philosophers took philosophy down a fruitless, damaging detour and he devotes three chapters to refuting logical positivism and linguistic analysis.

I do not recall how I heard about Confessions of a Philosopher since I was not familiar with Magee before reading this book. I generally do not read autobiographies, especially not those that are nearly 500 pages long and involve a person whom I have never heard of, but I am happy that I took the time to read this one. The front of the book includes a note stating that "[this book] is about ideas: the autobiographical element is medium, not message." I certainly got that feeling while reading the book, although I thought that the autobiographical aspects generally added to the presentation and tended to make the ideas more interesting (such as when Magee's personal conversations with Popper and Russell were included in the sections discussing their philosophical ideas).

I have always been interested in understanding philosophical ideas but I have generally found reading philosophy to be rather dense and boring. This is one of the only books that I have found (along with some Nietzsche, Camus and Dostoevsky) which discusses philosophical ideas while actually being enjoyable to read. Magee is an excellent writer who clearly presents ideas and I definitely plan to check out some of his other works (especially his books on Popper and Schopenhauer). I would highly recommend this book to those interested in a broad introduction to philosophy.

Confessions of a Philosopher
A very readable and easy way for an introduction to a many sided and complex subject, absolutely fascinating and enjoyable. ... Read more

Product Description
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Philosopher's Biography is an account of the life of Friedrich Nietzsche, a nineteenth-century German philologist and philosopher. Nietzsche wrote critiques on the subjects of religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for aphorism. Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. His style, and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth, raise considerable problems of interpretation, generating an extensive secondary literature in both continental and analytic philosophy. Nonetheless, his key ideas include interpreting tragedy as an affirmation of life, an eternal recurrence that has become subject to numerous interpretations, a reversal of Platonism, and a repudiation of Christianity. Nietzsche began his career as a philologist before turning to philosophy. At the age of twenty-four he became Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems, which would plague him for most of his life. In 1889 he exhibited symptoms of a serious mental illness, living out his remaining years in the care of his mother and sister until his death in 1900. Friedrich Nietzsche - The Philosopher's Biography is highly recommended for those interested in learning more about this important German philosopher. ... Read more

Product Description
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Rorts and all
This making of an American philosopher only covers the making, that is from Rorty's grandparents, parents, schooling, and career until about 1982. Rorty continued to live and write for another 25 years but that period falls beyond the view of this investigation.

It is interesting that an author would unroll an arsenal of sociological methods to address the circumstances of a single individual. Most of the new sociology of ideas assists the author's effort to show the changes in American academia and the stratification of disciplines occurring after WWII, and such explication is very well done. When it is clear that a theory will not account for a life-decision made by Rorty, Gross employs his "self-concept" idea; which suggests, roughly, that individuals behave in accord with their conception of self. The novelty of this innovation is hardly shattering and such a wishy-washy guide as to seem capricious beside some of the hard-earned, empirical theories of sociology and educational change.

The author sets out to reveal how it is possible that someone like Rorty could grow into a brilliant and controversial academic superstar. The sociological methods do very well to establish frames of intellectual activity and contexts for Rorty's opportunities, but they in no way persuade that Rorty's explosive success was anything other than unique. One case-study of a single individual does not make a science or a sociology secure (or convincing).

On the whole, this book offers a very solid review of Richard Rorty's early career, its development and some suggestions as to what made him tick, but revolutionary sociology this is not.

Rorty Would Approve
Sociologist Neil Gross has written a fascinating biography of Richard Rorty that attempts to show the sociological influences that formed Rorty into the politically radical, anti-analytical pragmatist we came to know and admire.

Although the book's title is misleading, since it gives no indication that quite a few pages will be devoted to discussing sociological theory, the strictly biographical portions--the majority of the book--are excellent and are unburdened with sociological speculation. Gross's discussion of Rorty's philosophical theorizing is quite good.

Rorty would have approved of Gross's work. Gross proposes a theory--a story or narrative--of how Rorty came to believe and argue what he did. Gross does this by looking at Rorty's rearing and the sociological pressures and influences of the schools Rorty attended and taught at. This is the kind of hypothetical "explanation" Rorty said we must endlessly debate regarding all so-called truths we affirm in a world in which we cannot encounter the "given" without wrapping it in the assumptions and theories of our time and place. Gross's sociological explanation of how Rorty came to be Rorty acknowledges, as Rorty claimed, that there are no sharp divisions between philosophy, sociology, or any of the other disciplines of academic study.

A separate chapter is devoted to each of Rorty's parents; then several chapters on Rorty's training at the University of Chicago and Yale; a chapter on his appointment to Wellesley College; then two chapters on his teaching at Princeton and his move to the University of Virginia.

The New sociology meets Richard Rorty
Neil Gross, speaking for the "new sociology of ideas", has written this compelling and challenging book in order to explore social factors that explain an intellectual's life-time professional career choices.Using Richard Rorty as an empiric choice to illuminate sociology theory, the author first traces Rorty's transition from metaphysician to analytic philospher and finally to a"leftist American patriot" (as a devotee of the pragmatists - James, Dewey, and Pierce); secondly, the author interprets and understands Rorty's decisions by dissecting out his "intellectual self-concept" - the author's own methodologic tool.Was the author successful in showing how sociology could explain Rorty's decision-making process?Yes.By giving us, the reader, insight into the great philosopher's self-concept.....This book should find a permanent place in the area of Humanities; it is especially recommended for those involved in the new sociology of ideas and of course to all attuned to Richard Rorty. ... Read more

Product Description
In the sequel to his intellectual autobiography, Philosopher at Large, the author describes his conversion, at eighty-four, to Christianity and his editorial oversight of the controversial second edition of Great Books of the Western World. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the Great Philosopher's Best
Surprising that among all the wonderful reviews about Mortimer Adler's work on Amazon that this particular book would be neglected. "A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror" was written, Adler explains, because his first autobiography, "Philosopher at Large," was written prematurely at the age of seventy-five! Approaching ninety when he wrote this one, he updates his autobiographical reflections. What's new? For the first time Adler tells us how he managed to write a book a year for a long stretch. Very helpful information. He also discloses other sides of his personality. For the first time, gives a full explanation of his personal religious beliefs.He discloses 10 unexpected rules on how he lived so long and vibrantly, (examples: "Never exercise" --"Never take money for work you would not do if you did not need the money" -- "Never say `when I die' say `if I die'.) A very important addition is more of the text of his famous 1940 address: "God and the Professors," which he includes because it explains his "deep antipathy for the professorial mentality." Adler lamented the fact that science, philosophy and religion were contained academically in logic-tight compartments ... that scientists, philosophers and teachers of religion have long failed to communicate with one another. Today we know the Aristotelian division of knowledge into separate categories, while making it easier to understand many things, also restricted learning to certain paths. Overspecialization has resulted in a petering out of frontiers and a need to discard reductionism in favor of more synthetic approaches to problems. See one of hiscontemporaries, psychologist Abraham Maslow's later work, critiquing science, religion and values. There is much more here, written in a refreshing and uncharacteristically light and often amusing style. ... Read more

Product Description
This brief text assists students in understanding Dennett's philosophy and thinking so they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the Wadsworth Notes Series, (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON DENNETT is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this concise book offers sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher, better enabling students to engage in reading and to discuss the material in class and on paper. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Extremely Clear... but what about free will?
I've been a fan of the OUP short introdctions to various philosophers, they don't have one on Dennett, so I got this instead. I assumed that this book would be similar to the OUPs. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's much better (except for the ugly cover and poor quality printing). It's lively, clever and not in the least bit patronizing. Generally speaking, the difiiculty with analytic philosophy of mind lies not so much in the specific problems and philosophical solutions floating around, so much as with the ridiculously dense prose that most philosophers write. Symons' book is a very clear guide to the recent debates for the novice and a breath of fresh air for professional philosophers. Personally, I've gained a new appreciation for the sophistication of Dennett's view, and contrary to what you might have picked up from philosophical hearsay, he's not just saying that we're all robots. However, I have to say, I bought the book as a quick way of getting a short account of Dennett's ethics. But as it turns out, there's no real mention of his ethical theory in Symons' book! Maybe it's because the author is smart enough to know that this is the weakest part of Dennett's thinking. Aside from that important deficiency, this is a lovely little book. Symons' account of Dennett's theory of consciousness is very clear. He does in about 20 pages what it takes Dennett himself 350 pages to do in Consciousness Explained.

Philosophy and the normal respect for science
John Symons has produced a beautiful, small book on the philosopher of mind Daniel Dennett, which is actually a full-fledged introduction to the philosophy of mind today. A high-level introduction, mind you, which takes the reader back to the heyday of analytic philosophy with W.V.O. Quine: Symons may be the first specialist of philosophy of mind to really understand its background in the rest of analytic philosophy, and this is partly why he can write so clearly and not clog up our understanding with too much 'C-fibre firing', 'weak supervenience' and the like. Dennett's important notion of "heterophenomenology" (which may be less far removed from phenomenology 'tout court' than either Dennett or Symons think) finally becomes clear. Besides writing well and clearly, Symons makes several novel contributions to philosophical thinking on these topics. My personal favorite has to do with what he calls "the normal respect for science", in Dennett's terms "nothing special, TIME magazine standard" (note that Dennett might be thinking of TIME a few decades ago!). Symons shows nicely how philosophy, and cognition in general, should not be understood as something separate from the natural world. There is only one world we live (and think) in: the natural world. As John Dewey put it in the early 1920s, experience, science and philosophy are continuous. Science gives us the best understanding we have of this world; but philosophy and even 'metaphysics' have a job to do as well, in non-doctrinaire terms. Anyone interested in these issues, not just in the 'homuncular' philosophy of Dennett, should read Symons' book.

Gateway to a World of Great Thought
A remarkably lucid, concise, and comprehensive introduction not only to Dennett's work but to the last 60 years of philosophy of mind--and in less than 100 pages.It frames debates with such clarity and evenhandedness that it makes you wonder how the field ever became as muddled as it is today.(Though the book's dextrous avoidance of jargon suggests an answer to THAT question.) Most current philosophers are more like philosophy critics, quibbling ad nauseum about their colleagues' interpretations of their interpretations of an earlier generation's interpretation of a doctrine whose original proponents abandoned it years ago.Dennett is one of the few who tackles the big questions in philosophy of mind head on.Because he doesn't waste time negotiating among all of his discipline's various voguish "isms," and because he defends his positions with so much evidence from the hard sciences, he tends to get classified as a cognitive scientist, or a cognitive psychologist, or an artificial-intelligence theorist, or even an evolotionary biologist (when he's defending Darwin).But with this judicious overview of more than 30 years of Dennett's evolving thought, on everything from free will to the question of whether machines can feel, Symons reclaims him for philosophy.And not a moment too soon. ... Read more

Product Description

At a time when almost all African American college students attended black colleges, philosopher William Fontaine was the only black member of the University of Pennsylvania faculty—and quite possibly the only black member of any faculty in the Ivy League. Little is known about Fontaine, but his predicament was common to African American professionals and intellectuals at a critical time in the history of civil rights and race relations in the United States.

Black Philosopher, White Academy is at once a biographical sketch of a man caught up in the issues and the dilemmas of race in the middle of the last century; a portrait of a salient aspect of academic life then; and an intellectual history of a period in African American life and letters, the discipline of philosophy, and the American academy. It is also a meditation on the sources available to a practicing historian and, frustratingly, the sources that are not. Bruce Kuklick stays close to the slim packet of evidence left on Fontaine's life and career but also strains against its limitations to extract the largest possible insights into the life of the elusive Fontaine.

Customer Reviews (1)

Fontaine's Philosophy
Kuklick is not pushing the story of a heroic, iconic individual--Fontaine is not cast as a symbol of racial improvement.

Instead he's telling the story of an individual whose career in academia was unlikely, rare for its time, and was, in fact, a mentor to Kuklick at the University of Pennsylvania.Fontaine's scholarly contributions, and his broader importance are both discussed.

Race in higher education is a subject that will not go away any time soon, and this book certainly pushes the discussion forward. ... Read more

Product Description
Few twentieth-century thinkers have proven as influential as Walter Benjamin, the German-Jewish philosopher and cultural and literary critic. Richard Wolin's book remains among the clearest and most insightful introductions to Benjamin's writings, offering a philosophically rich exposition of his complex relationship to Adorno, Brecht, Jewish Messianism, and Western Marxism. Wolin provides nuanced interpretations of Benjamin's widely studied writings on Baudelaire, historiography, and art in the age of mechanical reproduction. In a new Introduction written especially for this edition, Wolin discusses the unfinished Arcades Project, as well as recent tendencies in the reception of Benjamin's work and the relevance of his ideas to contemporary debates about modernity and postmodernity. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A Forgotten Scholar Worth Remembering
Ernst Cassier is a forgotten German Scholar worth remembering.His contribution is to "homo symbolicus" -- "man the animal who makes symbols/art." This book about him is an excellent introduction that puts him in the perspective of his times. -- Larry C. Randen ... Read more

Product Description
In this book, first published by Macmillan in 1977, Mortimer J. Adler, author of "Ten Philosophical Mistakes", "How to Read a Book" and "Aristotle for Everybody", provides a chronicle of more than 50 years of his achievement in the fields of education and publishing. He discusses the development of one of the great publishing ventures of the century - the 54-volume set of "Great Books of the Western World" - and he details the planning and production of the 15th edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica". This book describes the career of a man who sought to bring books to the layman and engage all readers in philosophical thought and debate. It recounts a wide variety of personal and intellectual encounters and ranges from academia to the world of business. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Highlights from a Long Career
Mortimer Adler may be our greatest living philosopher.Born in 1903, Adler worked his way from humble origins to academic achievements reached by few.He quit school in his teens and became a copy boy on a New York newspaper.He would later find his way into the Ivy League, attending Columbia University where we studied and later taught.He quickly championed the liberal arts education.He believes that students who have a well-balanced education become more productive private citizens.

His endorsement of the classical studies led to his teaching the of Great Books of the Western World, which he thought was the best avenue to a well-rounded education.If you own a set of Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World, you'll see Adler's name as associate editor.He wrote both volumes of the Great Ideas syntopicon that begin the series.

This book centers on the professional, rather than the personal, more so than the average autobiography.It's quite philosophical.Adler makes you think about different propositions as he reveals his discovery of certain knowledge.He's quick to point out his mistakes of youth, and he shares many stories of how his own lack of tact alienated him from his colleagues and other important people.He's mellowed much with age and has become more and more respected within his field.It's a very honest recap of a long and productive life.I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in philosophy, the great books, or liberal arts education. ... Read more

Product Description
Aristotle - Life and Times of the Greek Philosopher is biography on Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) a Greek philosopher who is considered one of the most influential philosophers in the history of the ancient world. Aristotle, who was a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, had a profound influence on Western thought, but extends beyond philosophy. His achievements include immense contributions to the study of formal logic, philosophy, and science. Aristotle - Life and Times of the Greek Philosopher is highly recommended for those interested in the life and history of Aristotle and also for those interested in the study of philosophy. ... Read more

Product Description
The book may have numerous typos or missing text. It is not illustrated or indexed. However, purchasers can download a free copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website. You can also preview the book there.Purchasers are also entitled to a trial membership in the publisher's book club where they can select from more than a million books for free.Publisher: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

This Version is GARBAGE!
I have read the original version "Passages from the life of a Philospher" from Charles Babbage from the campus library, and I have to say THIS version is absolute GARBAGE!This paperbook version is a SCAN from the original using OCR software (which does a horrible attempt to translate it into text).The first page in the book has a warning to the reader that asks for forgiveness due to the vast number of typos in the book.Their excuse is "We would really like to manually proof read and correct the typos.But since many of our books only sell a couple of copies that could add hundreds of dollars to the cover price."This was followed by "The publisher and author make no repesentations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of this book"This would have been NICE to know BEFORE I bought the book, but the descriptions made no mention of the books faults.It's missing all of Babbage's equations and all his illustrations of his Difference Engine.I suprised this book doesn't violate some copyright laws.If you buy this book, be prepared to be hodwinked.I will NEVER buy anything from AMAZON again.As far as I'm concerned, this is down right FRAUD!

Great if you're researching Babbage
This work contains some essential primary sources for Babbage's Analytical Engine. It includes Babbage's "On the Mathematical Power of the Anyalytical Engine," Menebrea's article in french, followed by Lovelace's translation and notes. There are stetches included of various sections of the analytical engine.

Great if you're researching Babbage
This work contains some essential primary sources for Babbage's Analytical Engine. It includes Babbage's "On the Mathematical Power of the Anyalytical Engine," Menebrea's article in french, followed by Lovelace's translation and notes. There are stetches included of various sections of the analytical engine. ... Read more

Product Description
A lucid and understandable guide to Soren Kierkegaard, the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and founding father of Existentialism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Best clear, concise intro/orientation book on Kierkegaard !
What an absolute pleasure it was to finally read a book on Kierkegaard that not only gets to the salient themes & thought of `The Father Of Existentialism' but also presents them in a readily understandable manner. Michael Watts has added a very important source book to the ever-expanding library of literary works on Kierkegaard. He has been able to distill Kierkegaard's complex original works into meaningful & manageable vignettes that compel the serious reader to seek out & explore more of the Danish philosopher's works. Michael Watts' work on Kierkegaard invites the reader to stop, look & listen to personal `truths' in Kierkegaard's works that one can be guided by in one's own ongoing process of becoming the `self'.

An absolutely first class intro to Kierkeaard!!!
I regard Kierkegaard not only as the true father of existentialism but also as an outstanding philosopher whose ideas have been, and still are, a major inspiration for thinkers in the world of philosophy, psychology and religion. Michael Watts has presented an extraordinary introduction that will appeal not only to the complete beginner but also to advanced students of philosophy. His lucid and inspiring explanations of Kierkegaard's thought have considerably improved my understanding of Kierkegaard's conceptions of faith and anxiety, and his coverage of Kierkegaard's most important work 'Fear and Trembling' is by far the clearest and most comprehensive I have come across. I thoroughly and confidently recommend this text, expecially since Professor Alistair Hannay of the University of Oslo, who is an acknowledged world authority on Kierkegaard, wrote a two page foreword in praise of this book! ... Read more

Product Description
This brief text assists students in understanding Berkeley's philosophy and thinking so that they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the "Wadsworth Philosophers Series," (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON BERKELEY is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this concise book offers sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher better enabling students to engage the reading and to discuss the material in class and on paper. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Overview of Berkeley's Idealism
Though the book is titled On Berkeley it really only covers Berkeley's most famous philosophical assertion that esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived).Umbaugh gives a good, detailed explanation of this concept and covers many of the problems that arise from Berkeley's world view.He also highlights some of the philosophical responses to Berkeley that have arisen throughout the years.The tone of this book is refreshing in that Berkeley is approached with scorn by much of the philosophical community these days, but Umbaugh gives Berkeley a chance to make his case and avoids making any presumptive judgments.A newcomer to modern philosophy may want to study Descartes, Locke, and Newton before picking this up in that the background information in this book is thin.Also, Umbaugh fails to adequately address today's most commonly discussed implications of Berkeley's philosophy, its relations to quantum physics, AI, multi-dimensional computer modeling, and neuroscience.Nevertheless this short book serves as a great refresher on Berkeleyan Idealism.

ON BERKELEY
This book is not only a clear exposition of Bishop Berkeley's philosophy, but makes the strong case that Berkeley's "to be is to be perceived" is not a silly or trivial position as many like to write it off as, but rather a serious account of "reality" and more economical that most theories which take physical reality as an intuitive given.

I used the book as a text in a course on Modern Philosophy, making Berkeley my "featured philosopher" and it worked well. I learned a great deal and my students did as well.

I recommend the book for such courses, or for anyone curious to see and evaluate a strong claim that Berkeley's immaterialism is a persuasive and reasonable theory.

I didn't come away from Bruce Umbaugh's very readable book convinced that my world of perception is not undergirded by a physical reality, but I did come away knowing that I'd never again approach Berkeley with some smug sense of superiority over this "crazy view."Umbaugh makes one sit up and take note of Berkeley as one who deserves his place in early modern philosophy.

Bob Corbett Department of Philosophy Webster UnivesitySt. Louis, MO. and Vienna, Austria ... Read more

Product Description
Both a Popper biography and an autobiography, Agassi's A Philosopher's Apprentice tells the riveting story of his intellectual formation in 1950s London, a young brilliant philosopher struggling with an intellectual giant - father, mentor, and rival, all at the same time. His subsequent rebellion and declaration of independence leads to a painful break, never to be completely healed.No other writer has Agassi's psychological insight into Popper, and no other book captures like this one the intellectual excitement around the Popper circle in the 1950s and the struggles of the 1960s and 1970s -personal, academic, political, all important philosophically. Agassi's Popper- whether one agrees with it or not - is an enormous contribution to scholarship.This second revised edition includes also Popper's and Agassi's last correspondence and, in a postscript it shows Agassi leafing through Popper's archives, reaching a sort of reconciliation, an appropriate ending to the drama.A must read. Malachi Hacohen, Duke University ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A courageous account of Agassi's studies with Popper
Joseph Agassi, The Philosopher's Apprentice:In Karl Popper's Workshop.Series in the Philosophy of Karl R. Popper, Volume V.Edited by Kurt Salamun.Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam and Atlanta GA, 1993. xx + 252 pp. -- Agassi describes himself as "the foremost exponent and leading critic"(p. ix) of his teacher, Sir Karl Popper, who, he claims, is "the greatest philosopher of the mid-century" (p. xiv).Thisaccount of his studies under Popper applies the idea that criticism is an expression of respect, so forcefully preached by Popper, and notes Popper's tragic failure both as teacher and as a leader.Agassi does not hold much back, not even the charges of treason voiced by insiders provoked by the circulation of earlier drafts of this work. To discourage those who might dismiss this work as mere gossip, we may observe the rule proposed herein:discuss a book's importance before considering whether its message is true (p. 182). Agassi succeeds in applying the idea, so forcefully preached by Popper, that criticism expresses respect.And we learn here of Popper's failure to practice his own teachings, of Agassi's loss due to a repeated failure to communicate, and the public's loss of Popper's intellectual leadership.The importance of this work is in the unblinking courage with which it presents this record of failures. In addition to the "melancholy" (p. ix) story, the "wild" (p. xi) narrative structure of this book, which is sometimes chronological, sometimes thematic and always open to an interesting digression, makes it hard to summarize or characterize.It opens thus:Popper's (Einsteinian) view of science dispenses with the authority of science and with the demand to defend views.Why then do scientists and philosophers -- including Popper -- continue this defense?The problem receives its face from embarrassingly detailed descriptions of the tensions between Popper and his associates, the harshness of their personal dealings, their defensiveness and their intrigues.As the story unfolds we see Popper's unbecoming sides, his cult of hard work, his maudlin Christianity and his anti-semitism(p. 25), and his resentment of willful distortions and dishonest dismissals.The estrangement between Agassi and Popper haunts this book. Gratitude, admiration and discipleship do not overwhelm his autonomy, nor do they mute his criticism.He views Popper's thought as the best expression of the morality of critical autonomy.Yet his efforts to secure his autonomy create the rift never to be mended.Indeed the most crucial source of the rift is Popper's refusal to discuss ethics.Agassi criticizes Popper's retreat from traditional positivism as "not sufficiently open" and as concealed under his constant (and just) disavowal of "logical" positivism (p. 173).This conduct is at variance with his own strong condemnation of "surreptitious" changes of opinion (p. 174). When Agassi criticized Popper's theory of corroboration,he generously conceded in a footnote that here Agassi may be right, as he may have correctly detected in Popper a "whiff of inductivism" (p. 6). This, he suggested, should satisfy Agassi's desire for recognition and silence his further criticism.Agassi, on his part, rejects the acknowledgment as far too generous (p. 7). How could Popper, the philosopher of critical rationalism, be so apparently closed to criticism? Agassi' s answer is the central lesson here: "... no one can judge how open to criticism one is and no one can declare adequate one's acceptance of a criticism and one's subsequent alteration of an opinion" (p. 69).One can never be one's own judge.Popper's personal failures should be seen as a shortcoming not of the critical standards he espoused but of the view of oneself as able to judge oneself in one's sincere efforts to be severe with oneself. Popper's life in the intellectual community, his reputation there and its sources are discussed in a series of vignettes that concern some of themost important figures in mid-century philosophy:Wittgenstein, Ayer, Carnap, Isaiah Berlin, Bar-Hillel, Bartley, Lakatos and more.Carnap and Lakatos emerge as villains.The latter was an ambitious and treacherous schemer who, appealing to Popper's vanity and defensiveness, isolated and manipulated him.Carnap's distorted version of Popper's views became canonic for a generation and blocked their public exposure.His Testability and Meaning(1936) identifies Popper's view as concerning not science but its language.The difference is this:the negation of a scientific theory is not scientific, yet the negation of a sentence is a sentence.So while science does not include the negation of the theories that it includes, any language does.Confusing the two leads to confusing refutation with verification:the refutation of a theory is confused with the verification of its negation.Thus verifiabilityand refutability, Carnap's view of science and Popper's, would appear symmetrical.The novelty and significance of Popper's vision are thus lost. In the final chapter we find an insightful critique of Popper's theory of leadership and a discussion of Popper's mistreatment at the hands of the philosophical leadership(p. 235).The epilogue is a call for the "grass root revolution in philosophy" (p. 246) implicit in Popper's views.This explains the resistance to them:leaders tend to be conservative.Yet "the present global crises which threaten our very survival" (p. 244) and the inability of philosophy to "join the action" (ibid. )make the revolution imperative.Agassi suggests that discussion of the issues raised in this volume, particularly among students, is a contribution to this revolution.Being myself a former student of his, I wishedto test his suggestion.I did, and I agree.I hope this important book is widely read and discussed, and that we begin an open debate onthe criteria of what is serious philosophy.This would indeed be the start of a philosophical revolution. -- Michael Chiariello, St. Bonaventure University. ... Read more